Facebook Testing 'Downvote' Button For Comments

When you tap on this new downvote button in Facebook, it will provide a bunch of options to make it easier for the team to identify what's wrong with that comment.

Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch that they are now testing the new tool on a few public posts by Pages in the USA, at the moment. "This is running for a small set of people in the US only".

A select few users noticed Thursday a "downvote" option appeared underneath comments on posts, next to the "like" and "reply" buttons.

Facebook has been rumored to add a dislike button to reactions for a long time but a spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch that it is not testing a dislike button.

Facebook, however, clarified that they are not testing a dislike button, as quoted by TechCrunch: "We are not testing a dislike button".

Obvious question: Why not just call it a "dislike" button, since that feature has been requested so often that it's basically nearly an Internet cliche? It's exclusively limited to providing feedback to Facebook about certain content.

"We are not testing a dislike button". The world's largest social network is testing it in the short-term for a small percentage of USA users, and it now doesn't affect how prominently a post is featured in a list of comments, a company representative said. If you're like me, and, well, anyone online who overanalyzes, you can see how this would bring some issues. This may lead to some false reports as well, you can speculate what would happen if a comment goes against any particular interest or preference.

One clue could come from a 2016 interview with Bloomberg, in which Facebook reportedly said the idea of a dislike button had been rejected "on the grounds that it would sow too much negativity".

"It's important to give people more options than just 'like, '" Zuckerberg said in 2015.

Unlike the Reddit version of the tool, the Facebookdownvote, in its current form, will not publicly show how many downvotes a comment has received nor will it affect the ranking of a comment, post or Page.